Xu Lanyin felt that as long as Zhao Wuji and his men could enter the Zhou Mansion smoothly, they would be safe.
The Zhou family has always prided themselves on being loyal subjects, devoted only to the emperor. When faced with something like this, they would undoubtedly seek to bring the Pu family, who persecuted the royal bloodline, to justice. Furthermore, both the Pu and Zhou families were descended from powerful families, and the Pu family, relying on Empress Dowager Pu's influence, had always been hostile to the Zhou family. It was only after Liu Zhaoyin became crown prince that they began to treat the Zhou family with courtesy.
At the Zhou Mansion in the capital, Crown Prince Zhou Zilin skipped the government office and went directly to the Eastern Palace. There was no morning court today; Crown Prince Liu Zhaoyin was in his study, studying statecraft with the Crown Prince's Grand Tutor.
After Zhou Zilin finished paying his respects to the Crown Prince, he said, "My grandfather has an important matter to report to His Royal Highness. As he is unwell, I would like to ask His Royal Highness to come to the palace."
Grand Tutor Zhou was not only the Crown Prince's grandfather, but also the key figure in his quest to regain control of the Eastern Palace. Even if Grand Tutor Zhou wasn't ill, the Crown Prince would visit him, let alone if he was otherwise ill. Furthermore, Zhou Zilin's evasiveness and the fact that he had to go to the Zhou residence to speak clearly meant that this matter was definitely unusual.
The prince stood up and went to Zhou's house in disguise with Zhou Zilin.
In the study, not only was Old Master Zhou glowing with rosy complexion and showing no signs of illness, but Zhao Wu, a strange man, and a woman were also inside.
The prince asked in surprise, "Old sir, what are you doing?"
Zhao Wu, Li Luo, and Nanny Yu quickly knelt down. Zhao Wu said, "I beg Your Highness the Crown Prince to make the decision for me and my family."
The prince had always had a very good impression of Zhao Wu and said, "What's the matter? Stand up and answer."
When the Crown Prince heard the story and saw the hairpin, he was extremely shocked, because he didn't even know that he had an aunt who was born only half a quarter of an hour later than his father. However, he had seen the Empress Dowager have a similar hairpin, and when he was a child, he saw the Empress Dowager using it to wipe tears.
Moreover, every time he was asked to go to the temple to copy scriptures for the emperor, he would copy two copies. He didn't understand it before, but now he understands a little bit. The other copy should be for his father's sister.
Even though he hadn't received confirmation from the Emperor and the Empress Dowager, he was certain that this was true.
The prince was in poor health, his face flushed red with excitement, and he coughed violently. After a short rest, he said, "If this is true, the Pu family is truly despicable. My father and grandmother have shown such great favor to the Pu family, yet they dared to kill the daughter that my grandmother entrusted to them as the heir to the throne, and even exterminate them completely."
He looked at Zhao Wu and smiled, "It was because of you that General Xu was able to bring back intelligence from the enemy country and bring those two traitors to justice, allowing me to regain control of the Eastern Palace. It's actually possible that you could be my cousin. This, this is truly fate." He then praised, "At such a young age, you have such powerful martial arts skills and a wealth of strategic strategies. You're no ordinary person."
Zhao Wu clasped his fists and bowed, saying, "Your Highness, you are too kind. Ever since our parents passed away, my brother and I have been constantly thinking about how to survive, how to find out the truth, and how to avenge our parents."
The prince said, "If this is true, the perpetrators must be severely punished."
It was already noon. The prince had a simple meal at Zhou's house and then hurried back to the palace with the Yan Shang hairpin.
He first went to the Huangji Hall, but did not enter the main hall. He heard the eunuch guarding the gate say that the emperor was discussing state affairs with several ministers, and even Pu Lao, the old uncle, was among them.
Pu Laoguojiu was the Grand Tutor, and at such an old age, he generally didn't need to come to the palace to discuss state affairs. He came suddenly, perhaps because he felt guilty and wanted to get information.
The prince asked the junior eunuch to invite the senior eunuch Wu Lian out and quietly told him that he had important matters to report to the emperor in the Cining Palace. He also asked Wu Lian to keep these ministers, as the emperor would discuss important matters with them later.
Wu Lian knew that it must be a huge event for the prince to dare to ask the emperor to move to Zining Palace at this time.
He quietly entered the main hall and whispered a few words to the emperor, who then asked those people to continue the discussion and stood up and left.
The prince whispered to him, "Someone claiming to be a descendant of Liu Ying is accusing the Pu family of colluding with the Wen family to kill Liu Ying and his family."
The emperor was startled, looked back at the main hall, and said, "Let's go to the Cining Palace."
In the Cining Palace, Empress Dowager Pu had just gotten up from her nap. She was quite puzzled as to why the Emperor and the Crown Prince had arrived at the same time.
The prince then said to the palace servants, "You can go down."
Eunuch Guo and several palace maids bowed and retreated. Nanny Zhang's heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively felt that something had happened, but she still dared not to retreat.
As soon as she walked out of the main hall, she was covered her mouth and controlled by several guards brought by Chai Rong.
The prince took out a swallow-shaped hairpin from his bosom and presented it to the emperor, saying, "Father, Grandmother, do you recognize this hairpin?"
"Yan Shang Chai?" The emperor and the empress dowager shouted in unison.
The empress dowager took it with trembling hands and saw the word "Ying" engraved in that special and hidden place.
Tears welled up in her eyes, and she asked, "Zhao Yin, where did you get this hairpin? Didn't it fall into the lake decades ago?"
The Crown Prince said, "Grandmother, this was given to me by Zhao Wu. He said he was the son of the hairpin's owner. His mother's maiden name was Zhao You, also Pu Ying, or possibly Liu Ying. At the age of five, he was sent to Wuyi Mountain to become a nun. At the age of nineteen, he returned to secular life and married Wen Xing, the son of the Duke of Qing. He was murdered sixteen years ago."
The Queen Mother and the Emperor were both very nervous and said in unison, "Tell me what's going on."
The prince told everything.
The Queen Mother listened to the whole thing in tears, stroking the hairpin on the swallow and crying, "Ying'er, my poor Ying'er, your mother is so sorry for you. I entrusted you to the wrong person. After suffering so much, you were still killed. Back then, your mother sent you and this hairpin away, hoping that the swallow would recognize its old nest, and that the person and the swallow could return to the palace together to recognize each other. Who knew that the swallow would return, but my son would die outside and never come back..."
She cried for a while, then gritted her teeth and cursed, "That evil woman, I treated her so well, and she actually dared to kill Ying'er. Ying'er was so cute, a little ball, how could she let her become a nun, and finally put her to death."
The Emperor's eyes moistened as he said, "It's a shame that I trusted the Pu family so much, yet they treated my sister like that. They let the Wen family kill her, not even sparing her husband and son."
The Queen Mother continued, "They say there's a spy from the Pu family around me. Who is it? I want her to die a miserable death."
The prince said, "It should be Aunt Zhang."
The emperor said, "Investigate thoroughly. I will not let anyone who harms my sister off lightly."
At the end of the afternoon, Empress Dowager Pu's chief eunuch, Eunuch Guo, came to the Zhou residence to fetch Zhao Wu and Li Luo. He was extremely respectful and polite, saying that the Emperor and the Empress Dowager wanted to see "Master Wen" and "Master Wen the Fourth."
Before Zhao Wu left, he asked He Xi to go to the farm and tell Xu Lanyin.
As the sun was setting, Xu Lanyin finally brought He Xipan over.
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